The Darkness

I believe in a thing called love, just listen to the rhythm of heart...

Okay, so remember that bad 80s song by The Darkness called 'I Believe in a Thing Called Love'? Well I do, and I've been listening to it on the iPod. Yes!

I have been remiss - there are a few things that I forgot to add in my last entry, so I shall tell you now. First of all, when I had dinner with Angelina and Amanda and their host family, Angelina and I taught them how to play Euchre after dinner. It was quite an achievement - the ultimate collapse of the language barrier. We taught French people how to play THE card game of the midwest, and they understood us!!! Secondly, when Angelina and I were shopping in Grenoble on Saturday, we saw a group of Native Americans dressed in their traditional costumes playing traditional music. Kind of a bizarre thing to see in a random French city, don't you think? Angelina analyzed the sighting as the equivalent of seeing Gauls dressed traditionally playing traditional music somewhere in the U.S. Hey, it could happen, right?

Now that that's out of the way, on to new business. Yesterday I went to Chamonix in the heart of the Alps, right near the borders of France, Switzerland and Italy. The bus ride there was a little shaky and uncomfortable - we made a couple stops on the way, which I guess was a nice break from the nauseating trip. We first stopped in Albertville where there was an Olympic Village. It was nice there, quite pretty. I, of course, took many pictures. One which many of you should appreciate, is of the sign for the Cheval Blanc (translation White Horse, think about it).

We took a train part of the way up Mont Blanc - it was too cloudy to go all the way to the top. Oh man, was it ever beautiful. There was still snow on the mountain tops, and we saw an amazing glacier. There were also some ice caves in the side of the mountain which we went into. There were some rocks and things frozen into the walls of the cave - I imagined it was something like what explorers saw when they discovered mammouths and things from the ice age. Very cool. I took plenty of pictures both inside and out of the cave, and the surrounding Alpine views. I must say it was one of the coolest places I've ever been to - and georgous.

The train ride back was better - shorter than the ride there. The only problem was the trip leader turned the radio on in the bus. It was a 'Nostalgie' station, or 'Oldies'. The music was fine, you know, Beatles, Beach Boys, random French oldies... but it was blaring! I tried listening to my iPod to take a nap, but even on full volume my headphones could not drown out the static-filled oldies music in the background. It was kind of hilarious, but obnoxcious nonetheless.

Today I had class - boring as usual. Art history was slightly interesting - we went to the Grenoble Museum of Art today, and then walked around the city looking at architecture. We went inside a cool gothic cathedral. It was so old, it was awesome. Virginia and I had sushi for lunch today, again at the Café Shaman. I enjoy it very much. We've decided to go out tonight - what a surprise. It's nice, my CUEF teacher Jean Bavard likes to not give us any homework, and we never have anything to do for Art History. I chose wisely :)

The Tour de France comes through Grenoble tomorrow - I'll be there with bells on. Pictures will be taken. Speaking of which, I am about to update my online album so check it out for Chamonix pics!

This weekend I am meeting Joe in Nice for Bastille day. Should be a good time. We'll check out Monaco, spend some time on the beach, eat some good food, drink some good wine, you know, the usual French stuff. Until tomorrow, ciao!